The present invention has particular utility with respect to an end board for supporting a child's bed having movable children's toys mounted thereon and is described herein as applied to such use.
As used herein, the term "child's toys" should be broadly construed to mean children's blocks, educational tools such as, letters or numbers, as well as other kinds of toys, such as, for example, toy cars, planes and trains. In addition, the term end board is to be construed as meaning either a headboard or a footboard for supporting a bed.
Children tend to spend a significant portion of time playing in their bedrooms. As such, parents or other care providers typically strive to create a mentally stimulating environment for their children by supplying the child's room with a number of educational as well as fanciful toys. However, space is often limited, and therefore parents are forced to restrict the number of toys that their children can keep in their rooms at any given time. One means to alleviate this problem as well as to efficiently use the limited space in the child's room is to incorporate certain toys and or learning tools into the room's furniture.
A further difficulty which is closely related to the problems associated with limited space arises when the child plays with toys, such as, for example, blocks, which involve several discreet individual pieces. Typically, a child will arrange these types of toys in various manners. Because of their large number and small size, these types of toys tend to clutter the floor of the room as well as get misplaced. Accordingly, it would prove beneficial if toys of this sort were permanently mounted in such a way as to allow the child to move and arrange the toys in the manner in which he or she is accustomed, but which prevents the toys from being strewn about the room.
In addition to the foregoing, parents often experience difficulty in getting a child to remain in bed long enough for the child to go to sleep. Typically, the child simply gets out of bed and plays with the toys in his or her room. As such, a need exists for a mechanism whereby the child's attention is held, while the child is in bed, until such time as the child falls asleep.
Accordingly, it is the general object of the present invention to provide an end board for supporting a child's bed which will both hold a child's interest while the child is in bed as well as provide a source of entertainment for the child in general.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide an end board for supporting a child's bed which has movable articles mounted in slots such that a child can move the articles along the slots in the end board.